God Jul!!

Hey everyone! So this is going to be a super short email because, even though it's p-day today, it is also Christmas! ha ha in Scandinavia the main celebration is on Christmas eve (julafton) and then they keep celebrating through the 25th (juldagen) and the 26th (annandag) ha ha Swedes love their Christmas! So yeah, we are leaving to spend julafton with a member family in down town Stockholm here in about an hour so we need to get ready. But I'll share a little bit about my week quickly and a few things I forgot to tell you all last week.


So we got some exciting news from Salt Lake two days ago! The greenies got their visas! wooohooo! So they will be getting here on the 27th! We are so excited to finally get them here! It is definitely an answer to many many prayers that they were able to get their visas before the end of the year. So this week will be crazy with all the Jul celebrations and then with the greenies coming! So I forgot to tell you the new situation here at the office! So now the assistants are Elders Hart and Leirimaa, and we are doing the split companionship's thing like we did before when I was with Elder Lamb for proselyting. So now I am with Elder Leirimaa for proselyting but, since we are low on missionaries right now, we don't have any Elders in Stockholm, as in down town Stockholm in the city itself. So that is now mine and Elder Leirimaa's area! Elder Leirimaa was just there as a zone leader before he came to the office so he knows the area and the investigators so we now go into Stockholm to proselyte and teach and Elders Hart and Asp stay here in Täby. It's kind of confusing at times but it is really cool! Elder Leirimaa is awesome and since he is Finnish he is fluent in Swedish so it helps me with my language a lot. So yeah that's update from the office now a days. I really do love the office so much! It's a really fun place and from the looks of things president is planning on having me stay here until March and then leave in March to train a greenie so that would mean
I would be here for the Boyer's when they get here! So I hope that it works out like that! Tell them hi from me and that I can't wait to see them! oh and tell Elder Boyer god Jul och gott nytt år!

So I am so excited to Skye everybody! Lets plan on doing it at 8 o'clock my time tomorrow, so that would be like noon your guys' time wouldn't it? I hope that works! If not email me back as soon as you can. but if I don't hear from you I'll just plan on that:) I am so excited!

Well fam sorry this email is so short but hey, we'll be seeing each other tomorrow! Even if it is just through a computer! ha ha thank you all so much for all you do for me and how loved you make me feel! I love you all so much and I'll talk to you tomorrow!

love-

McKay.

p.s. thank you so much for my pre Christmas package momma! We ate the jerky in one sitting and the Santa hats have been a hit in the office! ha ha and I may or may not have freaked out when I saw all the emergenC! You know me too well momma! ha ha

p.p.s. and the caramels are a hit and I love the vinylmation! Thank you so much momma! You are the greatest! I love you so much!

Pics

From the Editor: Finally have access to internet at my house so I have put all the pictures McKay has sent into the posts they go with. So, feel free to scroll back and enjoy the goodies.

We got the Dop!

Hey family how are you?! So just as I said in the subject of the email, we got the dop this week! haha Dop is the Swedish word for baptism and you pronounce it "dope" haha so we always say stuff like "go get the dop tonight!" or "that guy definitely needs to get dop'd" haha anyways, yeah, Björne got baptized on Saturday and it was such an amazing day! Björne was just glowing and so happy! The best part is, his 86 year old father in law baptized him! haha Before the baptism Elder Lamb went up the the father in law and was like are you going to be okay baptizing him? He just looks at Elder Lamb and is like "obviously! Watch this." and gets down on the ground right there and starts doing pushups. haha It was so funny. But yeah he had no problem baptizing Björne and everything went super well so that was awesome:) It felt so awesome to just sit there on Sunday and see him confirmed and then welcomed in by the whole ward throughout church. He is going to make such an amazing member. Well other than that this week was a really crazy week. We were very very very busy all week getting everything prepared for zone conferences on Thursday and Friday and then had zone conference, then the baptism, then church, and now it's Monday again all of the sudden. haha So that was pretty nuts. Elders Lamb and Marchant go home tomorrow so that is defnitely depressing.... I love those guys so much. Elder Marchant has been with me my whole mission basically since he was my zl in Göteborg and then came up here to be AP. So it will definitely be weird with them gone but the new assistants, Elders Hart and Lerimaa will be awesome. They are both such amazing missionaries and really cool kids. So since Elder Marchant and Elder Lamb's group is going home tomorrow we get to help driving people all over and get everything ready for that, so I've been up since five and unfortunately, we don't get a p-day today, just some time to write really quickly before we need to leave again. me and Elder Asp will probably take like a half p-day on Wednesday afternoon just to go get groceries and things like that. So I am really sorry but this email is going to be kind of super short :( So dad and mom, the mo-tab concert sounds like it was awesome! and wow that is so cool that you guys got to hear that guest singer belt out those Les Mis songs! I bet that was amazing! Don't worry dad, the Lord will "bring me home" in my due time :) about 15 months or so. haha. Thank you for getting me and ornament from Vegas this year even though I'm not there! It looks so cool! Thanks for the picture! Tell Kurt and Brooke congrats on little baby Tatum! She looks so cute! How's Aubs doing with her prego-ness? Is eveything coming along well? I pray evey day for her and the little guy :) So momma, I haven't seen any packages with my name on them yet other than one from megs but i'm sure they'll be here soon :) Thank you so much in advance! You are too good to me! I can't believe that my package already go to you guys! That is awesome! I was really worried that it wouldn't get there before Christmas so that is awesome! I hope you all like what I sent! But yeah that is the only package. Sorry there's not more! haha I would love to send you guys so much stuff but stuff is so darn expensive here so I have to be careful! haha. Thank you so much Dad for putting some money in my account. I will probably get a new suit or possible some ties or something after Christmas when everything goes on sale. So that will be awesome. Thank you so much! So in answer to the question about how Swede's decorate, some of them do lights but not many, mainly because almost everyone lives in an apartment, but something everyone does is they hang these big, lit up, stars in their windows and put these neat candle holders in all their windows and light candles. Just google image search Swedish christmas candle holders and you'll see what I mean. But yeah every window in the whole town basically has one of those two things in it so that is really pretty :) Anyways, I'm so sorry this email is so short but I need to go! I love you all so much and hope you have an amazing week! I can't wait to talk to you all in like a week and a half!


God Jul!
Love-

Äldste McKay.

Hey, Guess What!?! I Love You Guys!!

Hey there everyone! How are you all?!

 Gamla Stan (Old Town) Stockholm

So another week has flown by and Christmas is approaching dangerously fast! So I will be sending a package or two home today so look out for those. Unfortunately, they might not get there before Chirstmas. But hopefully they will at least get there within a couple days of Christmas. Anyways, so this week was a pretty good week. We got a call from Björne on Friday saying that he is completely done with coffee! So that was awesome! He had his baptismal interview Sunday and everything went great! So we are definitely having a baptism this coming Saturday! I am so excited for Björne! He is so awesome and has been so prepared! This will be my fist baptism here in Sweden so that is pretty neat! Oh and I forgot to mention, the person he chose to baptize him is his wife's dad who is 82 years old... haha so we will see how that goes. haha Lets just say we are going to fill up the baptismal font as high as we possibly can. haha. So things with Nadia aren't going quite as well... she has been in and out of the hospital this week because of problems with her epilepsy and so we were only able to meet her once. She is still doing pretty well and she loves church and has made a lot of friends there but she still hasn't made much progress with quitting coffee. So that is really hard, but we are definitely hoping to baptize her before the end of the year. So I was thinking about the phone call home this morning and when would be good times for you guys... would it be alright if we did it at like 8:00 am there? I know that's kind of early for Christmas morning there but that would make it around 4:00 in the afternoon here which would be pretty good because I think we have a dinner appointment at like 6:00 o'clock with somebody from the ward. Just let me know so we can coordinate! oh and I am going to talk to the Ericksons today about using one of their computers to skype since their laptops have camera's in them. So then you guys could just gather around mom's mac and then we could actually see each other! I think that would be super cool. What do you think? Oh and plus, skype is free so I wouldn't have to buy a calling card. Do you have skype already? If not just ask Ty and I'm sure he can help you get it set up on your computer. Then just send me your user name so I can call you that morning. We can figure that out more next week, just thought I would mention it so we can start to coordinate :)

So it sounds like you guys have been having a blast in Vegas mom and dad! It's good to hear that all the Utah boys have been doing good in the rodeo, it's always fun to root for the home town kids like you said Dad. Aubry sent me a few pics from their Disney trip and it looked like everyone had a blast! Good old Disney magic, haha it never gets old no matter how old you get! So I will have to keep it fairly short this week too, Elder Hart, one of the new AP's is coming in today so that he can kind of get trained in the AP ways before Elders Lamb and Marchant go home next Monday so our p-day is getting cut a little short because we need to go pick him up from the train station. I will definitely miss Elder Lamb and Elder Marchant alot, they are some of my favorite missionaries. But the new ap's, Elder Hart and Elder Lerimaa are really awesome too so it should still be fun. Well I know this email is sooo short and I'm sooo sorry! There's always just too much to do on p-days! But know that I love each and every one of you so very much and can't wait to talk to you here in a couple of weeks! I love this Christmas season and the opportunity and privilege I have to teach about Christ the Savior durring this special celebration of his birth. He lives! And because He lives, so will we in the eternities with our father in heaven and with eachother! I know that to be true. I love you all so much again! Have an amazing week!

puss och kram!

-Äldste Keetch

L to R Elders Asp, Lamb, Keetch, Marchant

It's Looking Like a White Christmas!

Hej allihopa! How is everyone?!

So this week has been so great but very very busy. Unfortunately the new greenies have not yet recieved their visa's, so the mission is in a form of disarray right now as we all just kind of sit and wait for them to come. Because of the fact that we had some missionaries go home and didn't have any new ones to replace them we have had to close some area's temporarily but president is doing the best he can to make sure there are at least missionaries in every sacrament meeting on Sundays. It definitely is very odd to be on the other side of things this time around seeing that the last group to have visa issues was mine. So for now the 7 greenies have been reassigned to Virginia. Hopefully we can get them here soon! As part of all the switching around and things that have had to happen the past little while we got an extra hand here in the office for about four days! On Thursday morning Elder Day (my last companion, Elder Saldutti's son) came to the office because his companion, Elder Car, was needed up in Norrland for a few days to fill a gap. So Elder Day has been here in the office with us for a few days on what president calls, "extended exchanges" haha We are taking him back to his area today but it was definitely nice to have an extra pair of hands in the office for a while!

So we finally got snow this week and man has it been cold ever since! Last night we were out knocking doors and it was -14 degree's Celsius! Which is about 6-8 degrees Fahrenheit. So yeah, it was cold. and that mixed with the pitch blackness makes it very bright and cheery around here lately.... haha just kidding. It's really not that bad at all. Just cold. Speaking of cold, since we have a car as office Elders(which I am so ridiculously greatful for!) I am going to try and hold off with buying any more winter clothes until after Christmas because I guess the sales right after Christmas are really really good. I do already have one coat and I have inherited another, lighter, jacket from Elder Lamb so I should be fine. Elders Lamb and Marchant both say that they have never really needed a super heavy coat so I should be fine but we'll see. So we have definitely gotten into the Christmas spirit here in the office, it's great! We have a tree all set up and stars in the windows and Sister Newell even got all of us here in office advent calanders. The ones that you peel back each day and there is a little piece of chocolate behind it. They are really big here! I guess they are a big Swedish tradition since Swedes actually celebrate the advents. Weird thing though, is that they only go up 24 on the calendar because Jultomte(Santa) comes on Christmas Eve. So yeah, we have fun opening a new day every morning and eating our chocolate. haha. Have you guys gotten the tree up at home? You'll have to send me pictures of the house when it gets all decorated. Oh and mom, you would be glad to know that your decorations have definitely come into use an that happy holidays window decoration is on our kitchen window and now reads "abba soap daily" haha everyone has fun spelling clever things with it so it is fun:) Last night we got together with the Ericksons for out usual RE and we all enjoyed Glögg, which is a super Swedish drink that is usually alcoholic but you can find it non alcoholic. It is so good! You drink it warm and it tastes kind of like apple cider but with a very heavy taste of clove and other Christmas-y spices. It is super good. then, in the middle of our Glögg drinking we got a call from the Stockholm zone leaders saying that you could see the northern lights in the sky so we all ran to the roof but couldn't see anything so that was too bad :( but hopefully later on in the winter.

**oh and here's another one of us all getting ready to open our advent calanders on the first day of december. poor elder day, since he was only here for like four days he didn't get an advent calander so we made him a photo copy. haha **

So an update on our investigators, Nadia came to church this week and really enjoyed it so that is awesome! As long as she can quit coffee on time she will be baptized on the 16th of this month. Björne is still doing awesome and is for sure getting baptized on the 15th of December! He is seriously the most prepared person I have ever taught so far on my mission. He is really solid, understands what he needs to do to be baptized, and is set on doing it. So hopefully we will have a double baptism week here in a couple weeks! All your prayers are felt in their behalf and our behalf and are so appreciated! Other than those two, we are working with a less active member who's sambo (girlfriend living with him) has become interested in the gospel. So it's kind of double duty on that one, trying to get him active again and teaching her, but it's good because then they are a support for eachother. Their names are Jan (said yawn) and pen. Jan is Swedish and Pen is a thai women. They have been together for quite a while but are not married so we'll have to fix that... haha.

So sounds like Aubry and Cody will be having a blast at Disneyland this week! That will be so fun for the girls to be there during the holidays! Have fun in Vegas at the rodeo mom and dad! Pick out a good ornament for me even though I won't be there hang it up! haha.

So holy cow that is so awesome that Stan and Roxanne got their calls to Sweden!!! They will definitely be the new office couple here to replace the Erickson's who go home in early March! That is so great because I know eveyone was a little stressed because we didn't have a replacement for the Ericksons until now! They aren't actually in our program yet that shows all the people who get their calls here but I'm sure they'll show up within the next few days! That is so awesome! I will almost definitely be here when they come. President has told me and Elder Asp multiple times that we will be here for quite a few months. (but just on a side note, he told me I could possibly be becoming a dad in March...) so I'm sure I will actually help train them in the ways of the office once they get here! haha It will be fun to speak some Swedish with Stan! I remember at my farewell he tried teaching me how to say the church's name in Swedish and I couldn't do it, and now here I am speaking Swedish fluently! haha It's so crazy to think about! Give them both huge hugs for me and let them know I can't wait for them to get here! On a not so awesome note, I found out that even though temple couples like the Backlunds are called to our mission, we have next to nothing to do with them :( We don't even get to pick them up from the airport, the temple just kind of does their own thing. So that's a bummer! But if I go to the temple in January or something maybe we could work it out to meet there.

Mom, thank you so much for sharing that awesome story about the geneology! That is so neat and is such an awesome example of the tender mercies the lord gives us every day. he really does love us so much!

Well unfortunately our p-day kind of got cut short because of errand running for President so I will head for this week but know that I love each and every single on of you so very much and I can't wait to talk with you on Christmas! Here in the next couple weeks we will coordinate when I'll call and everything :) This time you will be able to hear some real Swedish, not that MTC Swedish I spoke over the phone at the airport last time. haha.

I love you all so much! Have an awesome week!

puss, kram, och kärlek!-

Äldste Keetch

Good ole office work!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hey everyone how are ya'll?!

So, a couple funny random language thoughts before I get started on the email today. #1- I have noticed lately that I feel the need to use ya'll when talking to people... haha I feel like this is an effect of Swedish because in Swedish there are different words for whether you are talking to one person or multiple. It is "du" and "dig" if it is just one person and it is "ni" and "er" if you are talking to multiple people. Where in English on the other hand, we just say "you" all the time. haha So when I'm talking to multiple people I feel the need to say ya'll since it's plural. haha I thought that was kind of funny. #2 I can totally understand Norweigan and Danish! haha They are so simliar to Swedish that if I listen really hard I can understand most everything. I can read both of them almost as well as I can read swedish! So I thought that was pretty cool :) haha. Anyways...

So this week went by in a blur! Holy cow! haha I can't even really think of where to start. So we ended up having to push back our baptismal date with Nadia :( Mainly because she hasn't been able to make it to church and is still drinking coffee. So that was a bummer, but she is still looking pretty positive. She is trying to drink less coffee so that is good. We continue to teach her about twice a week. Björne, our other baptismal date is still looking super positive! He is so awesome! I need to try and get a picture of him to send you guys. Just in this past week he has gone down from 15 cups of coffee a day to 4-5. So that was pretty impressive! Oh and this weekend was Stockholm stake conference and he came to the whole thing on Sunday and really enjoyed it! So he is looking super positive to be baptized on the 15th of December! Keep him in your thoughts and prayers though along with Nadia. So stake conference was so great! It was at the Gubbängen chappel which is like the south end of Stockholm and it is a huge chapel! And by huge I mean that it is almost the size of a normal chapel back home. haha But that is big for Sweden!  It was really cool to see the whole place packed with members from throughout Stockholm. I got to see Elder Muirbrook there so that was awesome! It was the first time I had seen him since we got to Sweden. I really love that kid. I hope we end up as comps sometime on the mish.

So driving around Stockholm is definitely... stressful... to say the least. Up here in Täby it's not bad at all but once you get down into actual downtown Stockholm it is pretty nuts! Especially in the big mission van. That's why I'm super greatful to be proselyting comps with Elder Lamb because then we take the assistant's car and make the others take the van. haha. Elder Lamb is so awesome! I really am learning a lot from teaching with him so that is great. So there will be some changes going on this week... so we were supposed to be getting a new batch of greenies tomorrow but they are having visa problems just like my group did! I feel so bad for them! I know exactly what they are going through! So right now the mission is kind of on hold waiting for them to get here but in the mean time there will be a small transfer. Elder Kleis will be going home on Thursday, so we will be getting a new AP. It will be Elder Marchant who is one of my favorite missionaries in the mission! He was my ZL in Göteborg for five months so I am so excited for him to come up here! Also Elder Carpenter will be transfering to Hägersten with my dad, Elder Sanders. So it will be Elders Asp, Lamb, Marchant, and myself here in the office until Lamb and Marchant go home on December 18th. Those lucky dogs will be home for Christmas! haha.

So mom I'm excited for the package that is on the way! Thank you so much! I will for sure ask Sister Newell if she know's of anyone who could use a Christmas package in the mission when I see her at office meeting tomorrow and then I'll shoot you an email and let you know! So we are very lucky here in the Täby ward this week! There is an american family in the ward who is having us over for Thanksgiving dinner! All four of us! Their names are the Kendriks and they are so awesome! They moved here because Bro. Kendrik manages a company here or something and they are definitely full bred Americans. haha So we are all so excited to go over and have a real Thanksgiving with them! It will be so great! Tat is definitely a tender mercy of the Lrd that this family is so open and willing to have us in their home on Tanksgiving Iam so greatful for that!

Well I'm sorry the email is a little shorter this week but we are going to head out and do something fun for Elder Kleis' last p-day! Know that I love you all so very much and am so greatful for all of you in my life! Especially during this holiday season. Even though it's hard to be away durring this time of year, I would not trade a second of my time here in Sweden for anything! I love my mission so very much! Time goes way too fast! I know this church is God's kingdom on the earth today and that it is my responsibility and my privilege to help that kingdom grow here in the great land of Sweden. I am so greatful for my opportunity to serve and that I was raised by such amazing and shining examples of not just living the gospel, but loving it! (I'm talking about you mom and dad!!) I love you all so very much and and so thankful again for what a blessing it is to have you each in my life!

I love you all! Have a good week!

Love- Äldste McKay.

 Every sunday night at 8:30 we have what is called RE. haha It means revelatory experience. It's code for go have fika (like Swedish tea/snack time) with the Eriksons. haha It is the best! So each week at 8:30 we go over to the Erikson's apartment and Sis. Erikson has cookies or brownies or something awesome and we all just sit around the table and talk about what happened in the week and stuff. It is so fun! So last night for RE we had pizza and bread sticks as a going away treat for Elder Kleis and then we went into the Erikson's living room and took some "family pictures" haha This seriously is the best way to end the week. 

Ruins and a Photo Shoot

So on saturday we were on our way to some service and saw these cool looking ruins on the side of the road so we pulled over and to check it out. it ended up being ruins of a church dating back to the 1100's

Naturally what had to follow next was a photo shoot...

Ha Ha, Enjoy!

Hej pa er!

How's it going family?!


So another exciting week has shot by here in the office, and with it came even more big news! haha So I guess I'll go ahead and start with that.

So on Friday president was here in the office and pulled me and Elder Asp (Elder Carpenter was on splits with the Stockholm zone leaders) and the assistants into his office for a meeting and told us that we will be switching compainionships up a little bit. So how things will work now is until two o'clock every day (office hours), Elders Asp, Carpenter, and I will be companions, but then, after two o'clock we will have what are called "proselyting compainions" which means I will be companions with Elder Lamb, and Elder Carpenter will be companions with Elder Kleis. I guess they have done this before in the office in an attempt to get us out of here by two o'clock more consistantly. Also, it was Elder Lamb's 21st birthday on Saturday and his American license expired, and Elder Kleis doesn't have a drivers license because they are so expensive in Europe. So neither of them can drive! haha So that makes me and Elder Carpenter the only two that can drive out of the five of us! (Elder Asp never got his license before the mish). haha So we have to split up so that everyone can still get to their appointments. For now, Elder Asp will stay here in the office after we leave and be comps with Elder Erikson(the senior couple here in the office) then, once the Erikson's go home for the night he will be with Elder Carpenter and Kleis for the rest of the night. So kind of a crazy set up here for a little while but things will get alot simpler here on the 22nd when Elder Carpenter get's transferred and Elder Kleis goes home. Then we will hopefully be back down to just four in the office.

Did I confuse anybody with that long winded explanation?? haha Basically, all you need to know is from six thirty to two o'clock I will be with Carpenter and Asp in the office, and then from two until the end of the night I will be with Elder Lamb out proselyting. so yeah, that's the plan for now! haha

Oh and also in that same interview president told me and Elder Asp that he plans on keeping us here in the office for a long time. Like around 5-6 months.... haha so I guess I better get comfy! haha President changes his mind alot though so we'll see what actually happens. I feel like this means one of two things, president either really likes me and wants me here, or I did something wrong so he wants me here to keep a closer eye on me. haha Hopefully the first one!

So other than that this week has been just a normal week. We have another baptismal date! His name is Björne! He is a super awesome guy! I taught him on Sunday during priesthood with the assistants and he is so solid! He is the husband of a recently reactivated member who is now very strong in the church and is really adamant about helping Björne take this step. His date is for the 15th of December, which would be the Saturday right before Elder Lamb goes home so I really hope we can make that date! He has a problem with drinking coffee. Like a serious problem. Like 15 cups a day problem. haha But we are confident he can quit, he has already quit smoking and snus without too big of a problem so he can get past coffee I'm sure. and as for our other baptismal date, Nadia, she is doing well! I feel like quitting coffee will be a bit more of a challenge for her because she kind of self medicates with it to cope with headaches she gets from her epilepsy. But we met with her on Tuesday and taught the word of wisdom and she said that she believes she can quit, she's just scared. We will be doing family home evening tonight with her and her son so hopefully all goes well there. She is very determined to be baptized, but isn't quite as determined to quit drinking coffee right now. So we kind of need to help her realize more clearly how hand in hand those two things are.

So last night I was with Elders Kleis and Lamb at a members house for dinner and come to find out that this member goes to Pleasant Grove on buisness like 5-6 times a year! haha How crazy is that!? His name is Bengt Emanuelsson and I guess he his the manager over all of Europe for the company Synergy which is based out of Pleasant Grove right down by the University of Phoenix by the freeway! Världen är så liten! (the world is so small!) haha So yeah we got chatting about PG and he pulled up google maps and had me show him our house and all this stuff it was so cool! Then he started talking and aparently he is really good friends with the Normans and the Iorg's! as in Dane and Gay Iorg! haha I was just like no way!? My parents are friends with the Iorg's too! haha It was really really cool! So you'll gave to call up Gay mom and ask about Bengt. He is such an awesome guy! Their whole family was super cool. We had a really good time at dinner with them. Oh and he said that he is going to PG in about four weeks so I'm going to try and convince him to drop by the house or some thing. I think that would be so cool!

So holy cow do you all really have six inches on the ground!? That is crazy! It still hasn't really snowed here. Well at least not in Stockholm, it probably has clear up in Norrland. but it is definitely getting cold! And darker and darker each day. It's staring to get dark closer to three o'clock now. So that is depressing. haha By the time I actually get out of the office each day it's dark. haha but oh well. So good luck to BYU in their bowl! Do you know who they will play yet? That's just nice that they ended up being bowl eligible.
That is so amazing That you guys got to hear Elder Bednar! He is so good! Dad, I definitely feel you on the need to better your personal scripture study. I get an hour each day just for personal study and sometime I get to the end of that hour and am just like, wow, I really should have used my time better, I didn't learn anything! Oh and that is really neat about the Baklunds! I am so excited for them to get here! I'm going to talk to president about going to the airport to pick them up when they first get here. So hopefully I can!

Well fam I need to head for this week but know that I love you each so very much and love the work that I am permitted to do here for the people of Sweden!

I love you all!

love-

Äldste Keetch.

Hej från stockholm!

Hey family how's it going?!

so here I am in täby, Stockholm! and I love it so far! My companions elders Asp and Carpenter and so great! I love them both. it really is a testament to the the fact that your mission changes you for the better, because to be honest, Elder Asp and Elder Carpenter and probably the furthest personality wise from the kind of kids I hung out with before my mission but I love them to death! We have a lot of but and keep things light here in the office so that is good. So I guess I'll give you a little more info on the office and how that all works. So the mission office is located at Enebybergsvägen 38, the same address you send all of my letters and packages to. It is a big building with three floors, the ground floor is actually rented out to a pizza shop called viking pizza ha ha. The second level is split in half. Half of it is the mission office, which consists of two offices for the senior couple, the Ericksons, who work here in the office, a big office for us secretaries and the assistants when they are here, and then an office for President Newell. The other half is the Erikson's apartment. then the third floor is our apartment. it is us and the assistants that live there. So usually it is a four man apartment but for now we have five. There is enough beds to sleep six though since we have zone leaders and different missionaries passing through spending the night with us fairly often. Our apartment is seriously probably about three times bigger than any other apartment in the mission! haha it is super nice. Part of that is because we have the board room where all office meetings and meetings with new/departing missionaries take place as our living/studies room. So that is super nice. The assistants right now are Elder Kleis (Finnish) and Elder Lamb (from Washington state) and they are awesome! So it is always a fun time once we all get home for the night. ha ha. So a normal routine here in the office is hard to explain because according to what I've heard from others and what I've experienced so far, there is no normal routine. Ideally how it's supposed to work is we get up in the morning, do studies and all of that as normal, and then come down stairs at ten o'clock and start office work, which entails forwarding all letters and packages to missionaries in the field, sending our referrals we receive from salt late, filling media orders, and anything else President or Sister Newell or the Erickson's need us to do. then, at two o'clock we are supposed to stop office work and go out and proselyte for the rest of the day, hence the title proselyting office elders. Well, let's just say that I haven't gotten out of the office before five o'clock yet. and I guess that's pretty normal. ha ha Even though President really would like us to get out of the office by two every day, it just doesn't happen there is too much to do and a lot of it is very time sensitive so it can't necessarily be put off until the next day. Plus President always has lots of extra projects and errands for us to run. So we don't get too much proselyting time, which is a bummer but at the same time, makes it so we treasure and make most of the time we do get! I have not been so eager to go and knock doors my entire mission! ha ha You get a little stir crazy in the office towards the end of the day and it just feels good to get out, no matter what you're doing.  Do you all remember how mark and Jolynne would call me their gopher when I would help at the rodeo? Well, in a nut shell, we are the presidents gophers. For example, on Thursday we spend four hours playing taxi for some members between the air port and the temple and then on Friday we had to stay up until around midnight because we had to pick President and Sister Newell up from the airport because they had been in Spain for a mission president's training meeting oh and while they were gone we were in charge of fixing the broken internet in the mission home so that it would be back up by the time they got back. ha ha it's pretty random the stuff we get to do but it's okay, I actually really enjoy it! I have had the opportunity to edit one video already which will now be put on a DVD and sent to the whole mission to use while teaching high school English and religion classes. So that was pretty fun! Felt like home, except for the fact that I had to do it all on a PC instead of a Mac :( what is with the church and DELL computers?! ha ha Come on! I think I need to write President Monson a letter and tell him the church needs to get on the Mac wagon. ha ha just kidding.... but really... ha ha. nah it really wasn't that bad. It was just good to be working with video and computers again, and apparently there's more of that to come, I guess President has quite a few video projects planned for me. So that will be fun! So as for the are, we belong to the täby ward in the Stockholm stake. It is a great ward and is pretty big! Over 100 active members weekly. That's quite a step up from Trollhättan's 50-60 weekly attendees! ha ha It actually almost feels like an American ward, not quite but almost. Me and elder Asp were asked to bear our testimonies yesterday in fast and testimony meeting because we are the new guys and it went really well. I reflected back on my testimony that I gave on my first Sunday in Sweden in the Trollhättan ward and compared it with this one and it really is amazing how for my Swedish has come. Many members came up to me after and could/would not believe that I had only been in Sweden for only five month because of my Swedish. So that was definitely a confidence booster! We do have a car in this area. the assistants drive a small opel corsa just like the rest of the mission but we are lucky and get to drive the huge blue mission van! ha ha it's pretty awesome, it's a big, three row van that we use to take missionaries too and from the airport when they are arriving or departing and man it is a pain to drive! It reminds me a lot of driving the truck ha ha but I'm not complaining! It's just nice to have a car! So Täby is a very rich area of Stockholm which can sometimes be a little hard for mission work but it's also one of the most successful area's in the mission so that shouldn't be a problem:) we actually do have a baptismal date with a lady by the name of Nadia for the 17th of November! I haven't gotten to meet her yet but she seems very positive and we are confident she will make that date for baptism so pray for that and I will give you more info as I get it! ha ha. So unfortunately I haven't been able to find any winter clothes yet but I think we are planning on going into central Stockholm next week for p-day so hopefully I'll find some then! It is getting cold and really dark! As I am writing this letting it is two forty five in the afternoon and looking out the window it looks about like six at night. It is usually dark by four o'clock lately and pitch black by five thirty or six. It is really weird to get used to! Especially since we don't leave the office until around that time, we end up doing all our work in the dark. ha ha. kinda depressing but eh, not too bad. they do this stuff in Sweden called solar therapy that a lot of times the government actually covers and it is more or less just fake baking. ha ha. so maybe we'll have to go try that in January when it is dark 24/7. oh so speaking about the winter season, it is looking like i will almost for sure be here for Christmas. There's not foreseeable reason that I would be transferred before than. so that mean that Christmas packages can be as heavy as you want! The whole under four pounds thing is just a rule in the mission so that we can forward the packages to the missionaries at no cost but now that I live here at the address where all the mail gets sent, I will get my mail faster and there won't be any regulations on weight so cram those packages as heavy as you would like! *hint hint*.... ha ha. just so you know! 

Well I think that is about it for now, I just wanted to share a neat experience to end it for this week. So on Saturday we had the opportunity to drive about and hour and a half to the northern most part of our area and do service for this family in the ward that lives out there. needless to say they don't get many visits so we made it a point to spend most of the day out there. we helped them cut down trees and build wood sheds and split wood so that they could get ready for the winter since they live in the middle of the forest and rely on a wood stove for their heating. so after a long day of service and a great dinner ended by giving blessings to both the mother and the father of the family we headed on our way, it was only about 5:00 but as I said earlier, that was late enough for it to be basically pitch black. Well we set on our way home and about fifteen minutes into the drive elder carpenter had the need to... relieve himself... haha and we were just driving on a very remote two lane highway so we decided to pull off the side of the road really quickly. well what we didn't see is that covered by brush and grass was a fairly deep ditch right off the shoulder of the road. well we had taken the assistants small Opel corsa for gas mileage sake and it became completely high centered in this ditch. we could not get it to budge. well what do three missionaries do immediately when they're in trouble? pray of course! and wouldn't ya know, as soon as a prayer had been said, a young Swedish kid with an eyebrow piercing came down the road, we flagged him down and he said he lived just up the street and could drive home and grab a truck they had and pull us out. the reason this was such a blessing is because half way through our day of service our phone had stopped working completely. we would have been stranded if the lord had not been watching out for his servants and send that kid to help us out. he came back quickly with a hatchback Subaru, apparently that's what's considered a truck here in Sweden, and pulled us out no problem. I am just so grateful for that tender mercy the lord gave us and for that fact that prayer really does work. i know that when we pray we speak directly through our heavenly father and that that is possible only through Christ and his atonement for us! 

things are great here in the office for now and i hope things are great back home too! i love you all so much and hope you have a great week! 

love-

Äldste McKay.

Stockholm in the Morning

Hey family! So this week is going to be kind of a short email, but that's because I need to spend the majority of p-day packing... ha ha yep... so much for staying in Trollhättan another month, I got a call form president on Friday night and I am catching a train to Stockholm tomorrow morning! ha ha craziness.... ah I am so stressed out, but excited, but scared, but happy all at the same time! It will be really good to go to the office and get out of my greenie area after almost five months here, but I kinda have what we call "transfer stomach" I'm just nervous for the new and unknown you know? But it'll be good. My new comp is going to be Elder Asp. I'm a little nervous but we'll see how it goes.  Yeah so for the first three weeks me and Elder Asp will be in a tri-panionship with one of the current POE's, Elder Carpenter. He'll kinda show us the ropes and get us trained and then he'll leave in November to train a greenie and It'll just be me and Elder Asp.

So things are still good with Mario! He came to church yesterday and brought two of his friends! so that was super cool! The hard thing is none of them speak a lick of Swedish so we had to translate all of church for them into English and man, translation is hard! It's so weird, I can understand basically everything in Swedish but it's hard put it into English in a way that actually makes sense.

I'm sorry to hear that you haven't been feeling well Dad! I hope you are feeling better now! Let me know if the tigers pull off a miracle or just fizzle in the world series and keep me posted on the bowl status of BYU and Utah! I hope Gader can pull through this ear infection thing, poor dog. It's been just over a year since Meg died right? Poor old pups. I miss them! 

Tell Scotty congrats on the engagement! ha ha that is awesome that he did it at their Halloween extravaganza! Oh the Draper family... haha send them all my love! The Halloween party looked so fun and you all looked great in your costumes, especially Cody! ;)

Well family I'm sorry but I've gotta head! Too much to do today, but just know I love you all so very much! I'll talk to you next week from Stockholm! 

love-

Elder Keetch.

Big News

Just a bike ride me and Saldutti were on the other day.

Hej everyone how are you?! 

So this week has been a really good one! I'll go ahead and respond to your guy's emails and then let you know about my week. so that accident outside our house sounds crazy! hopefully everyone was alright and that our fence can get fixed. that's too bad about the blow out for pg and the heart breaker for BYU dad! hopefully they can both turn around and make something out of it. as far as baseball goes, I think I'm with you dad, I think I want the tigers to win. It's been a while for them hasn't it? Have they ever even taken it? So tell Brett Frampton congrats for me on getting called as a bishop! He will be awesome. So the contractors trip this year will be in the Bahama's huh? nice! That'll be super fun! Even if it is super close to Ty's wedding. So mom, thank you so much for the package! I picked it up a couple day's ago and oh man I was in heaven! I have missed Reeces sooo much! ha ha and thank you for taking care of my card and everything. Oh man that is so awesome about Sami Draper and Whitney Nyland! Tell them both they are so awesome! They will both make such good Sister missionaries. Maybe one of them will come to Sweden!  That would be crazy!  This is the best mission in the world though, so if they're lucky they'll get called here :)

So I guess I'll tell you all about my week now! A lot has happened this week! So everything kinda started Friday I guess with zone conference. Everything went really well with zone conf. it was all about how we as missionaries can work more in unison with the members in our wards and branches so that was really good! and then, came the interview..... ha ha so around seven o'clock at night I finally got in to have my interview and I had devised a few probing questions to see if I could get president to tell me where I was going to be transferred but turns out I didn't even need them, he just came right out at the first of my interview and told me! ha ha So it looks like I will be going to the office after all! the next big transfer is mid way through November. I will be transferring up to Stockholm then! I will be what's called a proselyting office elder, or a POE. and what that entails is more or less helping run the mission. ha ha Every day me and my comp will work in the mission office doing computer stuff and things like that until 2:00 and then we will go out and proselyte for the rest of the day like normal. I don't know too much about how it will work but I do know that most people like it. Because it's kind of like being an assistant to the president but without the extra stress and things the AP's have to deal with. So that's nice! President said he is bringing me into the office because of my computer skills and also because he said that from the day my group got to Sweden he sensed that he wanted me to be in leadership positions and the office is kinda to get me prepared for that I guess... so we'll see what happens! Now none of this is final. President is infamous for switching transfers the night before they happen so you never know, but as of now it looks like I'm going up to Stockholm! So I'm excited for that! I love Trollhättan but after almost five months here I'm ready for a change. So the other awesome thing that happened this week is that me and elder Saldutti got a baptismal date with an investigator! His name is Mario, he's Albainien, 25, and went to our church lots back when he lived in Greece. He loves the church and wants to get baptized asap. ha ha You haven't heard of him because we barely got him from a referral this week on Thursday! ha ha and we met with him last night for the first time and taughtt him in the church and he was like, so can I get baptized next week? ha ha we had to be like well... It will take a little longer than that ... ha ha so yeah Mario is awesome! Please pray for him! His dop(baptism) date is for the 17th of November which would be like three days before I got transferred. so I really hope it all goes through! That would be such a awesome way to end my transfer here in Trollhättan! with a baptism! 

So yeah, that is about all that happened this week. I love you all so much and hope you all have an awesome week! and I'll talk to you next Monday! 

love-

McKay Vance.

 So I totally forgot to say in the main email that it was also stake conference on Saturday and Sunday here in Göteborg stake! It was so good! Patrick Kearon from the 70 who was at our last zone conference (prayed in this last general conf and gave the scorpion talk back in April) Came and spoke and it was so good! That's him on the left and his translator on the right of the big screen. We had to all meet in a huge convention center in the middle of Göteborg called Svenska Mässan because none of the Swedish chapels are big enough to hold the whole stake. The chairs in this place were the comfiest thing ever!!!

This is the Swedish word for a speed bump. ha ha So these signs are everywhere around Sweden. and yes, it is pronounced the exact same as it looks. ha ha

Another Week in Sweden

Hey everyone how are you?! So another crazy Swedish week has rolled by and things are going great! Mom, you were asking about the Swedish people and why I think it's so hard for them to change and accept the gospel. Well there are two main reasons that come to mind. One is just like the Lamanites in the Book of Mormon, they are caught in the wicked traditions of their fathers. Once upon a time Sweden used to be a very christian country. You can tell just by looking around each city here, there are churches everywhere dating back to even the 1600's! But these past few generations have rebelled against that lifestyle by going the opposite way. The second reason and probably the bigger reason is because Swedes are content. They are happy. They make good money, the government pampers them, they are content in their ways and have convinced themselves that they are happy so it's hard to open their eyes and show them that there really is more to be had in this life. They are a pretty prideful people. The reason the church grows so quickly in Africa and South America is because the people there are humble. They don't have much and are willing to accept that there is more to be had. So yeah, those are my thoughts on it. It is definitely tough to have been out seven months and not have a single baptism, but it's okay, I know that as long as I can maybe improve a few people's opinions of the church then I'm doing my job. About investigators, Jill and Mellie are doing...well. We had a dinner at a members with Jill this week and watched the full restoration movie with her. She liked it, but it seems like all she really got out of it was that Joseph Smith gave all he had and all he got was a bullet in return. She is very angry with God and has a lot of "why" questions like "why would God let this or that happen?" So it's kinda hard to get through to her. Mellie is looking possibly more positive as of now, she is definitely more humble, but she is harder to meet with. As for the mormon.org referral, her name is Emillie Nilsson-dag. She is really nice and seems pretty interested but has a hard time meeting with us because she is a college student in a different city so it's hard to catch her at home. She lives in Uddevalla(about 30 min away from Trollhättan.) so that's the update on the work for this week. Things are going forward slowly so that's good.

This Friday we will have zone conference here in Göteborg, I'm super excited! We will have personal interviews with President so I'm hoping to find out what President's plans are for me. If he still plans on taking me to the office or if I'm staying here for a while. we'll see. I love Trollhättan but I am definitely ready for a change. Trollhättan is a really hard ward to be in. To put it bluntly, they don't really like the missionaries. So it's hard to trust them with our investigators we bring to church. It's just not a very strong ward so that makes it hard. That is why me and Elder Saldutti are trying so hard to strengthen the ward with the PMG lessons. Mom, that is so awesome about the PMG studies that you are doing now! I love that book and have such a strong testimony that it is scripture. 

Oh man I can't believe that the world series is already almost here! I don't quite know who to root for Dad, what about you? Let me know who the final two are and I'll pick from there, haha.  That way I'll  have a 50/50 percent chance of getting it right, haha.  Good luck to PG with Bingham! That's always a tough game. Man I miss sports! Sounds like those chickens turned out great Dad! Man I can't wait to come home to a smoke master for a dad! I'll never move out. I'm sorry Dad, but I can't say I'm sorry I'm not there to help you pull up the garden... haha but I hope it's not too big of a project! 

Well fam, I'm gonna head for the week but know that I love you and miss you all so very much! I am so grateful for my chance to be her in Sweden! I really do love this place and these people even if it isn't a very fruitful work. I just revel in the small victories :) 

Love you all!-

Elder McKay.

Man, I LOVE Conference!

Hey fam, How is it going! Can you believe that it was conference again already!? This was my second conference in the field, so nuts! So we were blessed and were able to see all but the Sunday evening session and because of the time difference we actually got to watch the Saturday and Sunday morning sessions live. The same time that you guys were sitting in the living room watching those sessions at ten in the morning, I was sitting in the chapel watching them at six at night, haha crazy to think about huh? Since I live in Sweden where everyone speaks English, they had conference available in English and Swedish. like half the ward watches in English so that they can hear the general authorities actual voices instead of the translators. We watched in English. Theres just something about those men's voices that gives their talks even more power. Mom wanted to know how the preisthood session worked. Well Saturday night at six we watched the Saturday morning session, then on Sunday we watched the preisthood session, then the Saturday night session and then the Sunday morning session at six. It was a day full of conference :) I loved it! That is seriously crazy about elders and sisters being able to serve earlier! I feel like the biggest effect it will have is more girls serving missions, so that'll be good. If I could do it over again I'm not sure if I would leave at eighteen. that semseter at SUU was so fun and really helped me get ready to go on the mish. I think I would still wait to nineteen. but at the same time it would be nice to just leave right out of high school. A few of my favorite talks were definitely Elder Holland, Elder Echo Hawk (what an awesome name!) and I also really liked Elder Gay's about how there's too much self justification of sin. That really hit me because there really is too much, "It's just a few dollars, it's not a big deal" stuff like that. It made me realize I need to stop self justifying and own up to my short comings and trust in the atonement more. I feel like that's why people justify their sins is because they don't trust in the Saviors atonement like they should. I know I need to be better at that. I love talks that really make me step back and analyze myself. So it's really good to hear that my new card is here! If you guys could put a little money on it, I think I'm going to start to buy some more layers and things. It is starting to get cold and dark here, fast. The colors are slowly starting to change, but not as vibrantly as they do back in Utah. That is cool to hear that that sister from Idaho called you guys! She was so nice! but yeah, It was her and her Swedish friend who I was talking to in that experience I shared with you guys. I didn't tell you guys that she was planning on calling you because I wanted it to be a surprise :) haha so surprise! Mom, about the package, hmm... if you could fit in a stick or two of deoderant that would be great. I'm on my last stick. other than that.... hmm... I'm not sure other than that! Surprise me! Thank you for the package in advance! You have no idea how much mail means to a missionary. Wow sounds like there were some crazy close games for football this week! Man I love it when we beat Lone Peak! haha Keep me posted on baseball for sure too. I miss American sports... but innebandy is amazing here! Well that's about it for this week. Elder Saldutti is feeling better now so that's good. I am in good health recently. I've only been sick enough to stay in the apartment once since I've been here in Sweden. I've had a fever once Mom, but don't worry, the ceiling didn't fall in on me! haha. It was just a low one. The work is still moving slowly forward here in Trollhättan. Our investigators have been... difficult... to say the least. Haha we can just never meet with them the past couple weeks, but hopefully it'll get better. Know that I love you all so very much and am so greatful for the environment I was raised in as a member of this church! I know it's true and that this is a chosen work that I'm a part of. I love my mission and love this gospel!


love you!

-Äldste McKay.

Sorry...

So the subject of this email is sorry because i think this might be a short email again this week! I am so sorry but me and Elder Saldutti need to get back to Trollhättan a little early today since we have an appointment right at six tonight. But I'll try to type as much as I can in the short time I have! So this week was a good week but a slow one. About mid way through the week Elder Saldutti got pretty sick so there was more sitting in the appartment than usual. So on Tuesday we went to the Shropes house and had dinner with one of our new investigators! Her name is Jill, she is 40 years old and has three kids. A girl who is five, and two boys who are eight and fourteen. they are all christian and have really good standards which is crazy rare here in Sweden let me tell ya... just the fact that they are christian makes them a minority here. So we had dinner and had a really good discussion with Jill about her religious background and then we sat down with the kids and everyone and watched the restoration movie. She really liked it and said she was excited to read in the book of mormon and find out more! ah it was so perfect! it was definitely the highlight of the week! other than that we just did some more less active work this week and began this thing where we are going to visit the members in the ward and teach them how to use PMG in there daily lives and help them realize that its not just for missionaries. PMG really is so amazing! I wish I would have realized how amazing it is before my mission! haha but I think these PMG lessons will be really good, the biggest problem here in trollhättan and the biggest reason it's one of the most unsucessful areas in the mission is because the ward isn't very enthusiastic about helping the missionaries or about missionary work in general so this should be really good.


It's starting to get pretty cold here! haha It's scary, and it's getting dark! I guess by the end of October/first of November the sun will be setting at 3 o'clock or something crazy like that! So we'll see what that's like.

Sounds like Cedar City is a blast! I would love to go to the shakespeare festival one day, I think I'd like it. Anyway, I'm sorry this is so short but I've gotta head! I love you all so very much! Thank you again for all you do for me! I feel each and every one of your prayers. I'm so greatful for each and every one of you and for my chance to be here in sweden! It is definitely hard work, but I wouldn't trade it for the world! I love you all!

ps. I can't wait for conference!!!

pps. I love you all!

ppps. yeah elder saldutti plays guitar. he is super good! he was in a couple bands before his mish that we're pretty famous.

Transfers

This is a family that have been meeting with the missionaries for. a. long. time. haha about nine years. they are so solid but just not quite to baptism yet. the dad's name is Hjalmar and he has one of the most solid testimonies of the book of mormon i've ever seen.  he will testify of it's truthfulness to anyone. and this is so amazing because he used to be like the head secretary of the church of satan here in sweden! haha a pretty big change if you ask me. his "wife" in the background is anna and the kids are tobias (in hjalmar's hands) and dennis. one day i will tell you this families whole story. it is amazing and is a perfect example of why i am on a mission. to help people like this come to christ. even if it doesn't end in baptism.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hey family! How's it going?! So here I am, three days past my six month mark! Crazy! It really has gone by so fast. I cannot believe that I am 1/4 of my mission completed already and that here in a couple weeks I will have my second general conference while on the mission! So crazy. I'm sure you're all anticipating the transfer news so I won't prolong it, haha. I am......... staying in Trollhättan. Elder Sanders will be going to Hägersten with Elder Ouimette from my group. Hägersten is up in the Stockholm South zone. It's super close to Stockholm. I will be getting Elder Saldutti here in Trollhättan. He is transfering from luleå which is the northern most area of the mission. He will probably speak some pretty bad Norlandska (a slightly different dialect that people in the northern part of Sweden speak) haha so that'll be fun. Elder Saldutti was in the MTC the same time as Sanders and Sanders says I'll really like him, so I hope so. He seems like a pretty cool guy. He is Italian-American and he comes from Arizona I believe. His name is Roman Saldutti and aparently Saldutti means soldier in Italian, so his name is roman soldier. Haha pretty cool. So yeah, Wednesday morning Sanders and I will take a train into Göteborg, Sanders will take a transfer train that'll take him to Stockholm and I'll stay in Göteborg and work with the zone leaders for the day until Elder Saldutti's train comes in at 7:00. That'll be exciting. Other than getting transfer calls nothing too exciting happened this week... oh wait! I do have a pretty good story for you! It's probably not a great one for the missionary moment but it's pretty funny.

On Tuesday, Sanders and I were in Uddevalla and we were walking down main street when this guy stops us. He was from the US and was a very loud, vulgar black guy with a mohawk. I guess he recognized us as missionaries and stopped us and started talking to us for a minute. Then he procedes to tell us how he is a DJ and is in Sweden for a tour he's doing with this Swedish rapper named Timbuktu. He's like yeah, you know Lady Gaga? i'm her DJ, haha so we are like oh okay cool.... just thinking that this guy is a little fishy. Then he goes on to tell us how loaded he is and things and then starts talking about how he needs Swedish Crowns because for some reason he can't get any? I don't know, it was really weird. He keeps trying to get us to pull out 3000 crowns for him each telling us that he would pay us for them in US dollars and give us a couple hundred bucks extra for our troubles and all this stuff. What he was saying just didn't add up so we just kinda talked our way out of it and left and went on our way. Well it turns out he really was Lady Gaga's dj, but we still think he was trying to swindle us because it just didn't make sense why he needed us to pull out crowns for him. Haha so yeah, that was an adventure.
Now for a more spiritual story that you could maybe share for the missionary moment in church... hmm... let's see... well this kind of goes along with how you are always wondering about my language. I think I finally had my "The Best Two Years" moment. You know how in the best two years at the very end of the movie Elder Calhoon turns to that dutch guy in the train station and gives him directions in dutch without even realizing it? Well I feel like that happened to me at church yesterday! It was ward conference yesterday and there was a half hour break in between meetings. Elder Sanders went to the bathroom so I went up by myself to these visitors in the ward and started talking to them. I ended up talking to them for like 10-15 minutes with no problem, in all Swedish! It was so awesome! I went and sat down and was like... wait.... what just happened? It was a really good feeling! So yeah, I can definitely testify that the gift of tongues is real! If I can learn Swedish, anyone can learn a language.

It sounds like Yellowstone and fishing was a blast so that's good! I would love to go to Yellowstone one day. I feel like that's somewhere everyone needs to go in their lives. Hopefully this next week of football will be better than last week! Sounds like PG's team definitely has some potential this year. Congratulations to both Aubry and Cody for moving in to the new home and on being prego again! Oh man I'm so excited that I'll have a new niece/nephew to play with once I get home! I'm calling it right now, it's going to be a.... boy. Haha Cody needs a boy and we already have two amazing little girlies.

Well fam that is about it for this week. I love you all so much and am so greatful for all that you do for me! Your prayers are definitely felt. I love you all and will talk to you next week!

love- McKay

Irene

Hey there Family! How's it going for everyone this week? This week has definitely been a busy one, so I guess I'll just jump into it. On Wednesday we had zone conference in Göteborg and this was a special one because we had a 70 come! His name is Elder Patrick Kearon. He was the one that gave the scorpion talk in conference a year ago or so and has a really thick British accent. He was super cool! Basically the entire zone conference was him teaching us. It was so good! There is just something about the general authorities, they just glow! It was really awesome to be able to learn from him for the day. On Thursday we went to that members house for dinner. Her name is Elsey Hedqvist. She is a super nice old lady but holy cow, it is hard to understand her, ha ha! Her jaw shakes really bad when she talks so it is next to impossible to understand her. It's like when you plug and unplug your ears really fast while someone is talking. It sounds like every third word is cut off, so combine that with Swedish and it was quite an adventure for even Elder Sanders to understand what she said. The meal wasn't too bad. She didn't end up feeding us sill. She fed us a really fancy dinner with lots of grapes and cheese and stuff like that, it was good... for the most part. Then on Thursday night we got some bad news. We got a phone call from a random number and it ended up being Irene's förvatare. I think the best English word for that is administrator? Anyway, I guess because of her asburgers syndrome she has an administrator that controls all of her money and finances. She wasn't too happy about the whole tithing thing that we had taught Irene. She told us we weren't allowed to teach her any more, so um... yeah. That's not fun, but yeah, to make a long story short, we got things figured out and we can continue to meet Irene but, we need to kinda let things cool down for a while. So no baptism this Saturday :( kind of a bummer, but hey, we just need to keep teaching her and show her we care about her, not just a baptismal number. Things will work out. We just need to be patient.
So mom, you wondered where we email from? Usually we email from the church, but sometimes from the YSA center in Göteborg. It just depends on how early we want to get to Göteborg. It is definitely getting darker here and it's starting to get a little bit chilly at night. Soon enough it'll be dark at 3 in the afternoon! crazy! Sounds like Swiss Days and your guys' weekends have been awesome so that's good! BYU's stadium sounds like it has gotten quite the technology boost! That is super sweet! Well, fam, I don't have too much time today so I'm gonna run. I know I didn't get to all your questions mom so I'm sorry in advance! ha ha well I love you all so very much and miss you all like crazy!

until next week-

McKay.
Me with a the studs of the ward!
left to right - Martian Stulen, the bishops son, he just graduated the equivalent of high school here. He is super funny and will start his papers here within the year. Me. Christian Stulen, the bishops RM son. He served in greece and is now getting married in October. Björn Andersson, he is an RM who just got back 6 months ago or so. He served in scotland and speaks amazing English. Like you can't even tell he is a Swede when he speaks. He will be going to BYU at the start of the year.

Elder Sanders was tired that night haha... we had to wait for the bus for 40 minutes.

Two old guys playing giant chess in uddevalla

 

Me and a crazy. no wait sorry, CRAZY less active named Lennart sjöström. let's just say he has told us before that he believes he's jesus. and he is always really concerned because about three years ago they took some of his blood for blood tests and he doesn't think his body made more. haha we love him. 

Sorry this is a little scattered...

Hey fam! How's it going for everyone?? So it sounds like this past week was a good one back home! Football sounds good Dad, hopefully PG can keep up that momentum they have and keep the wins rolling in! It"s super cool that you got to go up and see Megs play at the U! Man I miss her! That's too bad they lost so bad, but that's awesome that she is still starting! I know that she misses you guys and being at the house just as much as she misses me, she tells me she misses the family all the time. I'm sure she was thrilled that you guys came up and supported her. Keep in touch with her. Don't let her sneak away! ha ha and Dad, take care of any male threats if they come up, ha ha. The Brigham City Temple sounds so pretty! I'll have to go onto lds.org and see if they have any finished pictures of it. I love the temple so much, I definitely miss going to it so often, but I am coming up on six months out and every six months President lets you go to the temple if you want. It has to be on a p-day though, so maybe I can get a temple trip planned one of these p-days. This week is my last week of being trained. so after this week we will be done with the twelve week training program which means me and Sanders are up for being transferred. We feel like it will probably be in the next 2-4 weeks so we'll see what happens. I will most likely stay here in Trollhättan and get a new comp and Sanders will go somewhere else, possibly zone leader so that's exciting! That's cool that you saw that pic of me and Elder Christensen mom! He is super awesome, i loved being on splits with him. he has only been out about 4 months longer than me. The line of trees in the background is actually down town Trollhättan. It's super pretty. Mom you were wondering what our Sundays are like? Well we go to a coordination meeting at 10:30 with the ward mission leader and others, then at eleven we start church. We are on the backwards schedule so we start with priesthood and then end with sacrament. But yeah, we don't really do a whole lot extra other than take care of investigators and make sure they have ward fellowshipers when they come. We also look for less actives and make sure they feel welcome when they come. Then after church we kinda hang around and talk to everyone, set up appointments with less actives and investigators, things like that. After that we either go to a members for dinner if we get invited or head home and make some food real quick, then we go out and proselyte/teach for the rest of the night like it's a normal day. On Sunday nights when we get home there is kind of a tradition in the mission that Sunday nights are movie nights because it's p-day eve. So we have some ice cream or something and them watch like the Restoration movie or Finding Faith in Christ or something like that, so that's always fun. Oh and do you remember the movie 17 Miracles? Well I guess President ok'd it for us to watch so we are heading to Göteborg for p-day like always and we are going to have a movie day there with the zone and watch it. That should be fun! This week, our biggest adventure was that we went to a little city called Strömstad. It is about 10 minutes or so from the border of Norway, ha ha so that was exciting! It is a beautiful little port city with lots of water and boats. I'll make sure to send some pictures. We visited a less active there and he was so happy to see us. Missionaries don't get out to all these little cities very often so it's cool to be able to. Oh, random but I just remembered Dad asked about the fruit here, ha ha! It is basically the same here, the only thing different that I've noticed is I have not seen one regular sized watermelon! They only have the mini ones. Oh and they are famous for their strawberries here. They are called jordgubbar which means... earth guy? ha ha beats me. Speaking of food, a member invited us to eat lunch with her on Thursday and she said she is going to feed us sill. Apparently it is just a step up from surströmming. ha ha so wish me luck on that! Well we need to head soon to catch a bus and I need to get some pictures attached so I'm going to head. I love you all so very much and miss you too! Thank you for always keeping me in your prayers, you are always in mine.


love- McKay.

On The Road Again....Again

 Hey there mom and pop! How's it going? Sounds like Disneyland is a hot sweaty good time! ha ha So that's good! That's super cool Cars Land is open now! I can't wait to go to it. Hopefully by the time I get home it'll kinda be calmed down because it won't be so new. That is super fun that Mark and Jo and the family were there for a little while too! I think we need to get another Disney/cruise trip with the goodies and drapers again. that would be sooo fun! maybe.... coming home present?? ha ha I'm just sayin... think about it! So this week was a good one, lots of traveling again. me and sanders had the car for all of Tuesday and Wednesday so we hit the road hard. Both day's we mapped out our route and hit the road about noon and didn't get back until eight or nine at night. so. much. driving. ha ha We put around 500 kilometers on the car in two days. We only get 2000 a month... ha ha whoops. So we ended up taking the car back to Goteborg on Thursday when we went to district meeting just so we wouldn't use all the miles. it was really good though because we were able to get to a lot of tiny farm towns outside of trestad (tricity. that's what they call our area because of trollhättan, vänersborg, and uddevalla) Get ready for a lot of pictures today because the Swedish countryside is beautiful! we saw alot of really cool old churches from the 17 and 18 hundreds and a viking graveyard and alot of other really cool stuff. we even got to drive the car onto a ferry and ride it to an island! ha ha it was alot of fun and all the less actives were really happy to see us. they never get visits since they live so far away. so mom you were wondering about how teaching goes down with me and sanders. Well he leads the lessons and I usually just come in and add my thoughts and testimony or help clarify things or share personal experiences. My participation keeps going up as my Swedish keeps getting better. So on Thursday I went on splits with Elder Christensen. He is the one in that cinnamon roll picture with the crazy blond hair. It was really fun! He is from Draper area, went to Jordan high. I really like him alot. I wouldn't mind being comps with him at all in the future. He is into rock climbing and mountain biking too. So that was fun to talk to him about that stuff. Well I'll end with my most stressful experience this week. The time finally came and I was called upon to give a blessing in Swedish. One of the less actives we visited on Wednesday had been really sick lately and wanted a blessing of health. So Sanders anointed her and then I gave her a blessing. The whole blessing was probably about 40 seconds long. Very very simple. ha ha But it was good and I hope she felt the spirit that was there. That's all that matters. I was shaking so bad though! ha ha It was so stinking nerve racking! ha ha But it went well. My Swedish is slowly getting there. So that's good. Well fam that's it for now. It is one of the zone leaders birthdays today, Elder Linford. So we are going to go celebrate that. I love you all so much and will talk to you next week!

love- your elder.